Stories that make me dream
How do you imagine the S.S. Patroni Square?
It is dinner time, the family lays the table, tonight Angelo cooked risotto alla Milanese, the typical dish that his wife Elena likes so much. The children are fighting about who is going to sit on grandma’s side: Edoardo sometimes is still just a boy, even if he deeply tries to give the impression of a grown guy. Adele, their grandmother, observes the scene and she is happy about her family and these little moments.
Sofia won the spot beside Adele and immediately asks her to tell a story about her childhood. She knows that grandma loves to tell stories, and this one in particular starts with the surroundings of the church S.S. Patroni, the one that is currently used as parking lot. Adele continues her story about the games she used to play with other kids in this space, in the meanwhile Sofia tries to imagine how it would be playing in this area (with cars and the parking lot is now quite difficult and dangerous). Edoardo is pretending not to listen to the story, but actually he does, and he also wonders how it would be hanging out with friends around the S.S Patroni square. Elena tells about the square as well: she did not know the old Farmhouse Arzaga like her mother, but she remembers when Milan was not full of cars and especially when in this square people could feel safe and comfortable, even if there was nothing special in it.
The dinner ends and it’s now time to go to bed. It is late, Sofia and Edoardo go to sleep with an active imagination triggered by grandma’s story and two different dreams are about to start.
Oasis
Sofia finds herself in front of the church, different types of beautiful plants are blocking the view of the car parking and she feels curious to know what there is on the other side: to her surprise there are no cars anymore. Instead there is an open space, in which she feels away from the reality and from the ordinary city, but she knows she’s safe in this sort of hidden treasure in the neighbourhood. In her dream she walks through the square; even if it is not so big, it hosts a lot of activities during the day.
She sees some of her neighbours, the ones that are the same age as her, organizing a game in what it seems to be one of those simple fountains on the ground floor. She is about to meet her friends when suddenly a peculiar scene distracts her: she notices some people gathering around some wood boxes, Sofia takes a look on them and discovers that people are explaining others how to grow their own vegetables in these small boxes. Sofia immediately thinks about her mum and how much she would enjoy having meetings like this one every now and then.
She keeps walking, in her dream the S.S Patroni Square is a great place, people here seem to take a pause from their routines, they can relax and spend some time with others. She recognizes an area with some comfortable benches, in which a group of elderly people are gathering and reading the newspaper. In this same area, Sofia reads an ad that invites people at 19:00 to a performance event right there, and she overhears two young girls talking about the initiative, apparently one of the neighbours suggest it and once a week with the help of others, they organize this event. Sofia bets that her brother would like the idea, now he would have a nice reason to ask the new girl in the building to go out with him.
Pixel
In Edoardo’s dream the S.S Patroni Square looks different from reality, the parking lot is gone and now there is a straight and clean view of the square from far away. Edoardo walks toward this new area and he finds a colourful space full of vivacity. He is young and he is willing to see and be exposed to new things and technologies.
In the new square he finds some of his friends from the high school. Now that they started the college, it would be nice to hang out with them occasionally and getting updates from their new lives. He keeps walking and sees some people installing what apparently are white canvas, someone explains to Edoardo that this installation is about a street art context with the neighbours. It is a nice initiative because the event has attracted both young and mature inhabitants of the Arzaga neighbourhood.
The square now looks like a dynamic space, the activities hosted can be developed simultaneously, the space is divided in zones that are like pixels in a big image, they probably have different colours but you need to put them together to visualize the whole picture. Edoardo sits for a while, in the meantime he listens to a violinist giving a small concert, he thinks that if even his grandmother can enjoy these things during the afternoons, the square would have a meaning to her again.
In the dream, he sees the girl that moved in his building a few days ago. She seems curious about this peculiar plaza, she has just arrived in Italy to study and she is getting familiar with the city and the culture, it would be nice that the S.S Patroni Square becomes a place where she can feel included and part of a community, even if she is not Italian.
The next morning
The family is having a quality time together, Sofia and Edoardo are sharing their strange dreams they had last night and the rest of the family think that these are excellent ideas. They agree that the square in front of the S.S Patroni church would be better as a public space instead of the actual parking lot.
Later that evening, Elena is still thinking about the dreams her kids talked about, she makes some researches on internet and starts to talk with some people from the community page of the neighbourhood. She wants to propose a new project, the head of her email reads: How do you imagine the S.S. Patroni square?
TEAM 4
Angelica Almogabar, Tugba Dilmen, Giulia Mauri, Licia Rocca, Camilla Valori
